Memories of royal exposure
Having the young royals in town has reminded me of the times I have had exposure to our Royal Family over the years.
My mother took us to see the Queen at Empire Stadium when we were very young. The Queen was in an open carriage and we could see her very clearly. When she was at Twin Islands, we were on Savary Island and saw the seaplanes come and go.
Another time we were only five feet or so away from Diana and Charles at the convention centre in Vancouver during Expo ’86.
My best experience was when my friend and I were hitchhiking around Great Britain in 1970 and stopped in to Glamis Castle, inspired by our English teacher who made us learn the soliloquy about Glamis from a Shakespeare play. It was the Bowes Lyon childhood home of the Queen Mother.
It was closed to tourists that day but the chauffeur was in the post office and we met him. He took us on a tour of Glamis Castle, we had lunch in the huge kitchen and then he asked if we would be available to come back two weeks later to cook for the Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne, because the cook had to be away.
My friend was dubious but I thought it would be great! We went back and were met at the train in Edinburgh with the Rolls Royce, driven to the castle and shown to a magnificent room. I have lots of pictures to prove this!
The earl’s wife had died and was thought to be a ghost called the Grey Lady but we never saw her. The earl had a study and dining room on the same floor as our room and we had to serve him breakfast, lunch and dinner for two days. I think the poor man nearly starved to death. I had never cooked a steak and kidney pie in my life and did not know the kidneys had to be parboiled.
Barbara Graham
Saanich
A comforting article on the royals
Re: “Welcome, royals, to our little Island corner of paradise,” Dave Obee column, Dec. 26.
It was a pleasure to read a positive and uplifting piece by Dave Obee about Meghan, Harry and Archie enjoying the Pacific Northwest. I am a former resident of Seattle, so naturally consider British Columbia my exquisite backyard. I am not surprised at the welcome extended them as we know the people there to be remarkably warm and welcoming.
As an African-American, I was particularly happy with your coverage and the way it sensitively announced their presence. I am also jealous, as I am stuck in angry Paris (my current home, strike-ville) and not there breathing the air of Puget Sound, the forests of Douglas fir, and getting rained on (well, actually, I am getting rained on here, so that part is OK).
Merci, merci pour de bonne nouvelles pendant les fêtes!
Cheryl Pegues
Paris
Doors are open for people in need
Re: “Time for churches to open their doors,” letter, Dec. 26.
Since 1997, St. John the Divine Anglican, St. Andrew’s Presbyterian and Congregation Emanu-El have provided supervised sites for Out of the Rain Youth Shelter during the winter months. They provide sleeping mats, a hot supper and breakfast as well as warm clothing and clean socks, all donated by members of those congregations.
This is done for homeless street youths ages 15 to 25 and is the only low-barrier shelter system in the city, serving as many as 2,050 “stays” in a winter.
The entire program is run by Beacon Community Services, with co-ordinators in each congregation managing volunteers. St. John alone has 40 volunteers.
Karyn Lehmann
Victoria
When a decade ends and another begins
Re: “A look back at the decade that was,” Jack Knox column, Dec. 29.
I’m hesitant to mention this, after all the research you’ve done compiling the stories for your article, but doesn’t the decade end Dec. 31, 2020?
Don’t worry Jack, as I save all your articles, and will read it again when the decade truly ends in a year’s time.
Vern Miles
Victoria
The call saying a child is dead
Re: “Institutionalizing mentally-ill people is a failed idea,” comment, Dec. 22.
I ask the writers to defer to parents of adult children who are crystal meth-addicted and mentally ill, unfed because food doesn’t matter any more, dirty because they are incapable of hygiene routines even if housed in “supportive housing,” and incapable of interaction because voices are telling them to do acts of self harm and that they are surrounded by demons.
A person can go for months holed up in squalor without seeing anyone, until some drastic action of self harm brings the police, medics, and long hospitalization.
Advocates, often parents , are told that their adult children who are barely functioning and out of touch with reality are “adults making adult decisions,” and that the provincial Mental Health Act recognizes them as responsible agents in their own lives, a clear triumph of ideology over reality.
The writers dismiss, as coercive and a transgression of human rights, the concerns of those of us who want safety and an opportunity to get one’s mind back by removal from the street or “the scene” for a time. Even in their lovely dream world of wraparound service, all an individual has to do is refuse service. Don’t show up for appointments, refuse to move to highly “supportive” housing (if it exists) because it’s perceived as invasive, and if housed, refuse entry to the apartment.
What exists for people who struggle with addiction and mental illness is a last stop “mental health and addictions centre” in Burnaby, which allows people on a so-called “secure ward” to get passes to go into Vancouver and trade sex for meth, and return having been assaulted because of extreme vulnerability.
The writers denigrate my hope for a truly secure place for people to regain themselves with the support of highly educated and compassionate staff (which would include peers in recovery) as motivated by a self-serving desire to see distressed people “warehoused,” so I don’t have to see them and then pretend they don’t exist.
Listen to anguished parents and friends who have decades of heartbreaking real experience, and see the need for drastic action. Put high-minded ideology aside. We’ve had decades of experience, waiting for “the phone call” that says our child or friend is dead.
Diane McNally
Victoria
Mental hospital should be an option
I would suggest not institutionalizing is the failed idea. Take a look around Our Place and tell me they are better off being homeless. At least a mental institution is a home. I doubt much progress can be made with only street care and a drop-in clinic.
With the closing of Riverview mental hospital, mental patients who previously had a place to stay find themselves homeless, and worse off.
I remember playing in a chess tournament in the 1970s and meeting the B.C. chess champion.
He said he lived in Riverview. I asked what that was like. He said he could come and go as he wished, had a place to stay with meals, and got treatment as needed. He was satisfied.
The homeless are composed of mentally ill people, who need a Riverview, the drug-addicted, who could also use a home and treatment, and the poor (yes, lack of money causes homelessness and crime) who could use a helping hand finding a place to live and a job.
The present system is a failure. Mental hospitals don’t have to be modeled on the 19th-century image of mental patients endlessly walking around in rags. Enlightened care can and should be the norm, and mental hospitals should be part of that solution.
William Tate
Victoria
Improved services for mentally ill unlikely
The original intent of deinstitutionalization, as I understand it, was to provide needed services closer to home in the community. A good idea that has not happened.
It did not happen because we are faced with a tax-averse population and politicians who are afraid to raise taxes.
Increasing taxes to provide services for the mentally ill and to integrate them into our community properly simply is not and will not be in the cards.
Furthermore, the responsibilities were downloaded onto municipal governments, who lack the taxing power of higher levels of government.
Until we overcome our tax aversion, I think it will be better to re-institutionalize the mentally ill because I believe that they will receive better care than they do on the mean streets of our cities.
David Pearce
Victoria
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